


The Sweetest Lies

by Orlha



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Angst, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-08-14
Updated: 2017-08-14
Packaged: 2018-12-15 07:16:47
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,625
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11801124
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Orlha/pseuds/Orlha
Summary: Sakura is sent back in time to stop the 4th shinobi war from happening





	The Sweetest Lies

“There is no other choice.” Naruto levels a tired look at her and sags against the rock they are lying on. “No other choice.”

Sakura schools her breath, her heart tightening in her chest as she processes Naruto’s request. He’s right and she knows that. The war going on and on, the dead piling up in tall towers to burn. There is no other way. Sakura thumbs the words that run down the inside of her forearm. ‘ _Who are you and which village are you from?’_ it reads, words that she’ll never hear from her soul marked if she goes back.

“The timeline will change,” Naruto says to them. Not one of them says that it has to, or says that going back in time would be an inevitable death for her. They don’t say it because they don’t need to.

Sakura turns to Kakashi, her green eyes memorising each shade and curve of his. The man she knew and loved for so many years, the man she knew that is not her soul marked. “Kakashi,” his name is heavy on her tongue, the quiet plead in her voice. “Kakashi,” she repeats.

He pulls her in, holding her tight against his chest. Her body shakes, his vest is damp with her tears and he only cards her pink hair with his fingers, not saying a single word. He doesn’t have to.

The remnants of Team Seven politely turn their faces away as Kakashi drags his mask down and covers her lips with his. The kiss she had longed for so long, now tainted with the taste of her tears, _their_ tears. His thumb stroking down her cheek, her hand dragging across his scalp.

Sakura can feel the heat of his hand on her hip. If they had more time, if they had allowed themselves, if she had allowed herself to fall in love with him instead of holding out for her elusive soulmark. So many ifs and none that she could change.

She stifles a sob when they pull apart. Kakashi’s face is chiseled, no buck teeth, no hideous scars running down his face. His eyes are sad and knowing. ”Sakura,” he says and it’s more than he’ll ever say. Sakura can hear it in his voice, she can feel it when he draws circles on her cheek and kisses her palm.

No loud proclamations of love, none of the dramatic confessions like those in Icha Icha. Neither of them needs it.

His face splinters into silvery prisms as she stands then bends, tears sliding the bridge of her nose. Kissing him desperately, Sakura etches the taste of his lips into her memory. She drags a shuddering breath and tells Naruto, “I’m ready.”

-/-/-/-

Kakashi is dodging the kunai, weaving in and out through the woods. His eye burns but there is no time to nurse wounds. He needs to buy time for Rin to save Obito, he _has_ to. He kicks the knee out of one of the Iwa-nins, thrusting his tanto quick and fast like his father taught him.

Obito is pack. He can’t lose another.

He takes a blade through his stomach, blood spurting into his mask. As long as he is here to fight the Iwa nins off, they aren’t there to kill Rin and Obito. Kakashi shifts, lifting himself off the Iwa nin’s blade. His hands run through the seals rapidly, charging his hand into the silvery white chakra. This would be his last attack, the last bit of chakra, and Kakashi will be proud that he died in protection for his pack.

His soulmark will never meet him, but Kakashi is fine with that.

Then she appears. Her pink hair is like blood smeared across his chakra charged blade. She takes down two in a split second, her fist creates a crater the size of Obito’s apartment.

And Kakashi is in awe.

Never has he seen a kunoichi that deadly. He’s heard tales of Uzumaki Kushina, stories of Uchiha Mikoto, and while he never doubted them - because both women were fearsome in their own ways; Kakashi had never seen a kunoichi fight hand-to-hand with such speed and skill. She is small, just barely a head taller than him, her wrists are skinnier than both Kushina and Mikoto’s ever were. How she had ripped the ground with a single punch, Kakashi cannot fathom.

He wheezes, pressing his hands over his stomach injury. The kunoichi takes down the remaining six and flickers to him, her fingers gingerly testing the edges of his wound.

“Don’t worry, I’m a medic. The best there’ll ever be,” she says with a wry smile and all Kakashi wants to do is laugh. The neat handwriting down his neck is exactly that. The pink-haired kunoichi is _his,_ his soul marked, the one that shares the same soul as his in this forest.

Her chakra flows over him, filling him, lifting him. Even Rin’s medical jutsu hadn’t been this smooth, this steady. The kunoichi wasn’t lying about being the best - or the very least, much better than Rin.

Kakashi knows that no one else will ever match up to the pink-haired in front of him. He can feel the edges of their bond leaning to each other.

Never show weakness, even to your newly met soul marked, his father would tell him over and over again; words that Kakashi will carry to his grave.

He reaches for her too-thin wrist, encircling it easily. _Diet?_ Kakashi wonders.

“Who are you and which village are you from?” he asks. Her headband says ‘Ninja’ and he’s never seen a village headband with that.

Her lips tremble at his words, her hand fisting his sleeve. “Sakura. My name is Sakura.”

She pulls away, flickering to Obito. Kakashi hurries after her. She might be his soulmark but his pack comes first.  The pink kunoichi has single-handedly lifted the rocks and dug Obito from beneath, running her hand down his side with her green chakra. She _is_ the best, Kakashi amends as he watches. He watches Obito’s ribs rearrange themselves, watches the skin stitch itself together in just moments. Even Tsunade couldn’t do that.

There is a warm glow in his chest when the back of his mind whispers, _his._

Sakura lifts Obito in her arms, leading Rin and him through the forest. There is sweat beading down the back of her neck. Her thigh bunches and lengthens as they leap from branch to branch.

 _His,_ he agrees. She has saved Obito, saved him, she is _his_ soulmark, these are plenty of reasons to let her join Konoha.

Kakashi doesn’t see it, not until it’s too late, when Obito is falling through her arms.

“Sakura!” He reaches out and she just looks at him. Her eyes are green, green like the leaves on the Hashirama tree.

“Kakashi,” her voice is tight as though she had to strain it. She reaches out and thumbs his face. She is translucent now. “Good bye.” Her words are a mere whisper on the breeze now. There is nothing to show for, no proof that she existed except for the tight grip of Rin’s hands leading him and Obito back to Konoha.

-/-/-/-

Kakashi hates the pink haired girl in his team. He recalls the memory of his Sakura, her grip on his sleeve. Haruno Sakura is not his pack and she’ll never be.

_He is wrong._

-/-/-/-

“Kakashi-sensei!” she calls for him. Kakashi wants to hate her, hate her for looking like his soul marked. Her eyes are green like Sakura’s, green like the Hashirama’s leaves in Summer.

He sighs. “I think I stopped being your teacher three years ago,” he tells her.

“Kakashi-senpai then.” She smiles at him and heat floods his face.

_He loves her and he’ll never admit to it._

-/-/-/-

Kakashi holds the headband in his hand. ‘Ninja’ it says.

_Her pink hair falling across her face as she leans to heal his stomach injury. His hand encircling her too-thin wrist._

No, not diet, he corrects himself two decades too late. Malnourishment from the food shortage.

He sees Sakura replace her Konoha headband for the alliance’s and his stomach drops. Haruno Sakura is _his_ Sakura, just not yet.

-/-/-/-

“There is no other choice,” Naruto says. “No other choice.”

They had argued about the seals for over three days already. Kakashi refused to let them send Sakura back. He remembers the pink-haired kunoichi fading into the sunlight.

_“Sakura. My name is Sakura.”_

“The timeline will change,” Naruto insists.

Kakashi holds Sakura tight, his sharingan burning every detail of her into his memory. He doesn’t tell her that she will die, he doesn’t tell her that nothing changes. She is better off there than here.

 _It will be painless,_ he assures himself. Nothing like the death that is waiting for the team seven here.

He watches Naruto and Sai draw the seals into the earth, he watches as Sakura steps into the circle. His heart is pounding, belying the aloof look on his face.

_“Don’t worry, I’m a medic. The best there’ll ever be.”_

Kakashi steps across the circle and wraps an arm around her waist. His mask is down, uncaring of any spectators. If he had said something, if he had pursued her, if he hadn’t pretended to be ignorant of her affections. He captures her lips with his, his hands are cupping her cheeks. He sucks her bottom lip and Sakura parts them, pressing into him. Her hands are clutching his vest, clinging to him.

“Sakura,” he murmurs into her hair.

He steps back, watching the seal light up and whisk her away. She stretches her hand out to him, she is translucent now.

“Kakashi.” Her word is now a mere whisper on the breeze.

_I loved you._

 


End file.
